Things went about as bad as they could have for the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. They lost another close and ugly game to the Los Angeles Chargers, 16-13, but also lost a lot more than just a game. The Chiefs officially snapped an almost unparalleled streak of success with this loss, and now their dynasty is in danger of ending. However, the biggest loss may have been the ACL injury that will now sideline star quarterback Patrick Mahomes for months.
Having your franchise quarterback tear his ACL is always going to be a devastating blow for any NFL team. There is no good time for it to happen, and it will always create an added obstacle for both the player and the team to overcome. While some may think that the injury coming toward the end of a lost season is as good a time as any, that actually couldn’t be further from the truth.
First and foremost, because the injury happened late in the season, there is a chance that Patrick Mahomes could not be ready to start Week 1 of next season. The average return time for an ACL injury is 9–12 months. Nine months would put Mahomes back in mid to late September, which could potentially mean only one or two missed games. If he were to be out for a full 12 months, he would miss most of next season.
Knowing the type of competitor Mahomes is, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising for him to do everything possible to be back in time for the season opener. Some athletes have even returned closer to six months, but those exceptions are rare. Still, Mahomes isn’t the type to count out, and while he does scramble a lot, his position doesn’t require him to consistently make hard cuts like some others do.
So if we were just talking about Mahomes’ ability to be back for the regular season, there is definitely hope and reason to be optimistic. The bigger problem is that the Chiefs proved this season that they need to overhaul their offense. They need an injection of talent at the skill positions, and they also need to rework the offensive scheme.
Patrick Mahomes’ ACL injury threatens to stall the offensive and coaching changes the Kansas City Chiefs badly need.
This is where the Mahomes injury could become a major roadblock. Andy Reid is already pretty set in his ways. While he’s one of the greatest coaches in NFL history and the architect of the Chiefs’ recent dynasty, it is still fair to criticize him for being stubborn and placing “his system” above everything else. Convincing Reid to make changes to his scheme and/or offensive coaching staff was already going to be a tough sell, but the offensive issues that led to Kansas City missing the playoffs seemed severe enough that it might actually happen. Then came the Mahomes injury.
If Chiefs fans had their way, Kansas City would add several new offensive pieces this offseason and replace Matt Nagy with a new offensive coordinator from outside of Andy Reid’s coaching tree who could inject new ideas and concepts into the offense. That was already a tough sell for Reid, who prefers his system and players familiar with it, but it becomes even harder when his quarterback isn’t going to be able to be on the field for most or all of the offseason program.
If Reid were going to break in a bunch of new weapons and inject new concepts into the playbook, he would obviously want Mahomes out there—not only to practice them himself, but to act as a coach on the field, getting everyone on board and helping the unit mesh together. Not having him available to practice through most of the offseason will either slow that process down or give Reid an excuse not to make many changes at all.
After all, if the offense were a well-oiled machine, it would make sense to keep things consistent so your star quarterback could hit the ground running in a familiar system surrounded by familiar players. The Chiefs’ offense was clearly not a well-oiled machine this season. Too often, Mahomes looked like he didn’t trust his weapons, and the play designs weren’t creating easy completions for him. Something has to change if Kansas City wants better results next season, but now their star quarterback can’t spearhead those changes. That’s a problem.
Andy Reid has some soul-searching to do. He’s had a Hall of Fame career in Kansas City alone, and Chiefs fans will be eternally grateful for the dynasty run that fulfilled their wildest dreams and then some. While that remains true, it was clear this past season that the wheels were coming off his once-great offense. If he wants to continue as head coach and get back to winning Super Bowls, he needs to adapt his scheme once again and avoid using Patrick Mahomes’ injury as an excuse not to do so. Otherwise, Mahomes may return from injury next year only to repeat the same frustrating results we saw this season.